Baltics in Brief

I AM WOMAN, I AM UNDERPAID: Women in Lithuania, on average, earn 500 litas ($125) per month less than an average man. An official in the Lithuanian department of statistics said the difference in salary between men and women was predetermined by a number of social and economic factors: skills level, professional structure, and structure of employment. According to research from last October, men earned 249 litas more than women; male officials earned 1,615 litas more. The study showed similar differences in payment could be seen in Western European countries. In France and Italy, a woman's wage comprised 76.6 percent of wages paid to a man while in Austria it was 73.6 percent.

"GRUMPY OLD MEN": Former Soviet NKVD officer Yevgeny Savenko, who is accused of genocide, believes that alleged war criminal Konrads Kalejs should not be tried, according to Russian daily "Respublika" on March 13. "This Kalejs is also an old man," Savenko told the paper, saying that war time events have "their own laws." "I feel that we should forget former offenses and start living a normal life," he said. In the interview, Savenko repeated that he wants to apologize to the Latvian people on behalf of the Soviet leadership.

COMING SOON… SHAKESPEARE IN KLINGON: Estonian President Lennart Meri presented the Shakespeare museum at Stratford-upon-Avon with the bard's collected works in Estonian on March 12, most of which were translated by Meri's father Georg Meri. President Meri said that his father never had the opportunity to visit England and that he would be very proud of the gift to the museum. So far, the Shakespeare museum has four of the bard's plays which were translated into Estonian, published in the 1920s. Stratford's contact with Estonia have been tight this year as the Shakespeare Week was attended by three Estonian teachers, while two school theaters will participate in the Shakespeare acting project later this year.

STRIKING OUT AGAINST STRIKES: The Estonian Consumer Protection Department disapproves of the planned warning strike of the Estonian Cable TV association against the new cable TV law. "We understand that there is a serious problem but such methods will not solve things," said Enn-Toivo Annuk, deputy director of the department on March 13. Members of Estonian Cable TV Association announced on March 10 that they may stage a warning strike against the new cable TV law which gives monopolistic cable TV rights in a certain area to one company. The strike would mean that no TV channels would be transmitting to viewers during one day in March. It would affect 175,000 homes in Estonia, which is one-third of the population.

LEMBERGS' HOLY GRAIL: It is a possible that a mosque, a Muslim house of worship, will be built in Ventspils, Ventspils Mayor Aivars Lembergs said at a news conference on March 13. He said representatives from the local Muslim community approached him to discuss the possible construction of a mosque. The primary location for the mosque is in Riga, naturally, but if the Muslim community community wished to build a mosque in Ventspils, the city council will suggest some plot of land for the purpose, said Lembergs. There are 600 Muslims in Ventspils, though the mayor said he was a little surprised to learn that many lived in the city of about 50,000 people.

NEXT YOU'LL TELL US THE EARTH IS ROUND: The ruling coalition should affirm its ability to function because presently its unity is causing doubts, according to Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga. In an interview with Latvijas Radio, she said the coalition is no longer united as it was when it formed and there are "splits and currents leading separate Cabinet members or parties into certain conflicts on several issues." Vike-Freiberga said that politicians in the ruling coalition must work hard to rebuild unity so the public will not look negatively at a government whose members are so busy arguing they don't have time to work.

INMATES TAKE POLICE OFFICER HOSTAGE: The Lithuanian police department said there was an incident in the eastern Svencionys district where a prison officer was taken hostage by two inmates on March 11. During that afternoon, 30-year-old Ruslan Yurantsev and 27-year-old Andrei Serebriakov attacked their prison guards as they were being led back to their cells after a walk. One managed to escape, but the other was taken hostage. Senior police officials negotiated with the men for two hours, who protested their incarceration, before releasing the guard. Both officers had worked at the jail for 10 years and never faced a similar incident. The prosecutor's office has started legal proceedings against Yurantsev and Serebriakov.